bed n.
the world of sex; sexual intercourse; thus bedmanship, sexual proficiency.
[ | Rape of the Bride 14: All these agree, with one Accord, / You’re bonny and buxom at Bed and Board]. | |
the Devil rides outside 174: I married a woman because we slept well together. [...] . I have everything most men want—money, social prestige, success in my field, a good bed. | ||
Campus Tramp 151: [S]he had thrown herself into the scholarship game with the same zeal she had previously devoted to learning the finer points of [...] bedmanship. | ||
in Erotic Muse (1992) 296: We go to college, we major in bed, / Ten to a dorm, not one maidenhead. | ||
(con. 1949) True Confessions (1979) 67: She took bed for granted, knew more about it, in fact, than he could concoct in his wildest dreams. |
In derivatives
bed, in the context of a place for sex.
CUSS 78: Beddie Bed. | et al.||
Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 186: On balance you’re worth more to me in readies than in beddies. |
(US campus) an attractive, sexually available young woman.
Sl. U. |
In compounds
(orig. US) a promiscuous person.
[ | Eng. Moor III i: That I may [...] Triumph / Over the lustful stallions of our time: / Bed-bounders, and leap-Ladies]. | |
I, the Jury 120: Mary [...] looked me over from top to bottom. ‘You look like an athlete if I ever saw one.’ ‘What kind?’ I joked. ‘A bed athlete’. | ||
Northwest Rev. 1:1-2:4 16: He proves himself [...] a bedroom athlete equal to Kerouac’s young bohemians. | ||
Contours of Experience 184: Elmer Gantry [is the] bedroom athlete, the coldly seductive Don Juan who, by loving all women, rationalizes a murderous inability to love anyone. | ||
Publishers Weekly (US) 3 Apr. 20: Chester Himes, ex-convict, jewel thief, bedroom athlete [...] but above all writer. | ||
All Played Out 265: he had, however, the biggest cock in the history of the human race, and when it came to being a bed athlete, was really quite prodigious. | ||
🌐 Look, Tony, I was a pretty good professional football player. I’m a good bed athlete too. | Option Seven||
Lois Roden’s Astrodatabank 🌐 The Sun/Pluto con. dictates a person (Sun) of power (Pluto) but also a person who has an obsessive desire for sex. I suspect that the Mars/Venus con. plus the Sun/Pluto con. would make him quite the bedroom athlete, as Pluto also is the ruler of sexuality. |
(US) an underage sexual partner, who can be of either sex although most often a teenage girl.
in Words at War, Words at Peace. |
see separate entry.
a prostitute.
Dict. of Provincialisms 10/1: Bed-Fagot, A contemptuous name for a bed fellow. | ||
, , | Sl. Dict. 72: BED-FAGOT, a contemptuous term for a bedfellow. | |
Sl. Dict. | ||
Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Bed-Fagot - A contemptuous term for a woman, generally applied to a prostitute. | ||
Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 202: Paillasse, f. A harlot; ‘a bed-fagot’. |
1. the vagina.
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
2. the penis.
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
to live a sexually promiscuous life; thus bedhopping n. and adj.
Westerly 1:3-4 33: [B]ed-hopping. Boring boring boring. | ||
Heiresas of All the Ages 102: [T]he turgid muscularity and female bed-hopping of the twenties and thirties. | ||
Nuncle 169: [I was] in for a bit of rather tired bed-hopping. Largely to convince myself that I wasn't past it. What happened wasn’t always too convincing, but I put that down to the drink. | ||
Film Bulletin 38 12: [B]ed-hopping and wife-swapping. | ||
Alistair Cooke on PBS 21 Dec. [TV] In between the bed-hoppings [etc.]. | ||
Time 5 June 61: Lesley Anne Down graduated to playing [...] a bed-hopping socialite. | ||
Fixx 51: Never [...] have I encountered bedhopping on the scale it took place at Melton Hall. | ||
posting at Keen Forums 4 Apr. 🌐 Don’t get drunk, don’t bedhop, just get Blotto. Seven days a week! |
1. (US) a ‘short-time’ hotel or assignation house.
Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 9 Apr. n.p.: There are so many bed-houses and places of assignation, where bawds pleasure crowns the labors of the day. | ||
N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 10 Aug. n.p.: Margaret and her ‘cousin Peter’ were on their way to a bed house’ [and] the girl received a V for her trouble [...] Mag has slept with a male friend at an assignation house . | ||
N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 195: The bloated night-walker [...] who lives by pacing the purlieus of the Points or Water street all night, and enticing drunken negroes, sailors or loafers into two-shilling bed-houses. | ||
Lights & Shadows 523: [T]here are [in New York] about 5000 women of ill-fame, known as such, living in 600 houses of prostitution, and frequenting assignation and bed-houses. | ||
Laws of Wisconsin (Statutes) §348.351: [A] house of prostitution, bed house, room, or any other place for any unlawful purpose. |
2. (US black) a brothel.
Whip & Satirist (NY) 23 July n.p.: Her den is a bed house, and is the resort of the most low and vulgar of those dangerous characters who nightly infest this neghborhood. | ||
Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 June 3/4: He met a fascinating demoiselle [who] invited him to a bed-house kept by a woman named Annie Valentine. | ||
see sense 1. | ||
, | DAS. | |
5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | ||
Maledicta IX 148: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: […] barrel house, bawdy house, bed house, broad house. |
1. a whoremonger, a womanizer.
Henry IV Pt 1 II iv: [of Falstaff] This bed-presser [...] this huge hill of flesh. | ||
(con. 1900s) Banana Bottom 144: ‘Pudenda!’ he ejaculated [...] ‘Stop your Spanish obscenity, you licentious Panama bed-presser,’ said the minister. | ||
Shakespeare’s Bawdy 79: bed-presser. A fornicator; a whoremonger or womanizer. |
2. a dull and heavy man; a lazy man.
Manchester Times 11 Nov. 5/2: Your bear is a highly accomplished bed-presser. | ||
Manchester Courier 9 Oct. 8/5: Mr Tree was a perfect mountain of man, a huge bed-presser. |
3. a prostitute.
Sl. & Its Analogues (rev’d edn) 173: bed-sister, bed-presser, bed-piece and bed-fagot: see tart. | ||
DSUE (8 edn). |
(Aus.) very noisy breaking of wind.
Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 7: bedrocker: A loud fart. |
see separate entry.
(US) a failure, an incompetent.
Jimmy Bench-Press 18: He’s a jerkoff [...] He’s a genuine bed-wetter. |
In phrases
see separate entry.
(W.I., Bdos) of a woman, to take part in a sexual relationship in return for material support.
Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage. |
to have sexual intercourse.
Sl. and Its Analogues. |
(N.Z. prison) confined to one’s cell through sickness.
Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 15/1: on a bed ride to be confined to one's cell for medical reasons. |
(US campus) to have sexual intercourse.
Campus Sl. Apr. 11: wreck a bed – engage in energetic sex. |
SE in slang uses
In phrases
(orig. US) allied or associated with, usu. implying nefarious activities.
Flypaper War 79: ‘[A]ll the oil companies on earth are in bed with each other’. | ||
Carlito’s Way 79: I knew Don Jorge was in bed with Amadeo. | ||
After Hours 72: Do you think we would be in bed together if I didn’t have faith in you? | ||
Minder [TV script] 31: Now that we’re in bed together -- [...] Business-wise, Johnny, business-wise. | ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in||
(con. 1933) Big Blowdown (1999) 21: All you Greeks are in bed with Roosevelt. | ||
(con. 1986) Sweet Forever 203: If Tutt’s in bed with Tyrell [...] then you know the two of them have go to hook up to talk about damage control. | ||
Soho 49: I’m half in bed with a guy in LA whose name I daren’t even breathe. | ||
(con. 1962) Stark 13: Because of a stupid bust [...] he was in bed with the cops. | ||
(con. 1973) Johnny Porno 52: The ones in bed with the mob over stolen cars, and guys [...] running interference for the porn business. |
1. (US) to trail a subject until they return home and stay there.
N.Y. Times 31 Jan. 27/6–7: The first night he shook off our detectives after they had followed him less than a block, but the next evening we put a ‘tail’ on him, and thus contrived to ‘put him to bed,’ as we call it. | ||
Und. and Prison Sl. | ||
We Are the Public Enemies 154: Peggy Cavanagh, the Cleveland Waitress, was being awakened in the morning and put to bed at night, as they say in detective circles. | ||
DAUL 169/2: Put the clown to bed. To follow a small town cop home before committing crime. | et al.||
Cool Man 97: He intended to wait Willie out, and, in the language of the police on tail, put Willie to bed. |
2. to perform a task until it is concluded, esp. used of newspaper editions/columns.
Conant 61: That night Mike put the column to bed at eleven o’clock. | ||
Blind Ambition 144: ‘I’m going to stay on until we put Watergate to bed’. |
3. (US und.) to deal with, dispose of.
Joey Piss Pot 240: ‘That fugazy mustache will put that bullshit drug charge to bed. It was a setup’. |
4. to consume a drink.
Gutted 135: I put the double to bed smartish, let the pint go down slower. |
dead and buried.
[ | Norfolk Drollery 85: For he is still, though he be dead, / But in a manner put to bed]. | |
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | ||
(con. early 19C) Rookwood 179: Long after I’m done for — put to bed with a mattock and tucked up with a spade. |
to murder; to bury.
Select Proverbs 110: The greatest King must at last go to Bed with a Shovel or Spade. | ||
Rival Modes 3: George: Dead! How? Hen. Of a several things. Of a Dropsy; of four Apothecaries - and of a Tuesday - Which being over, after I had put her to Bed with a Shovel [...] I felt within me that pleasing Satisfaction which all Husbands feel when their Wives can feel no more. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: If this Corsican Chief, / should come o’er like a Thief [...] And his Army of Slaves, should by Chance ’scape the Waves, / Then we’ll put them to bed witha Spade. | ||
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Morn. Chron. (London) 7 Aug. 4/2: They had not lived on good terms lately; he often told her that he would stick her, and be the end of her, that he would put her to bed with a spade. | ||
Dublin Morn. Register 13 Aug. 4/3: D—n your old eye, if we thought you had known us last night we would have ‘put you to bed with a spade’. | ||
Andrew Jackson 150: An undeservin person who hadn’t put all ’em are Inglish tu bed with a shovel, when he had 'em in his power. | ||
Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 189: No sooner, however, were they / Put to bed with a spade by the sexton, / Than he carried the darlings away. | ‘The Babes in the Wood’ in||
Waterford Chron. 26 Aug. 1/5: How some of our ould friends [...] would stare at the notion o’ bein’ ‘put to bed with a spade’ [...] instead of havin’ a rowzin’ wake [etc.]. | ||
‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Vocabulum 124: With shovels they were put to bed / A hundred stretches since! | ||
Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 9 June 3/3: Ttry your strong Government and a Dictator, of you dare. The former will be broken up [...] and the latter will be put to bed with a spade and pick. | ||
‘Hands off’ [broadside ballad] – Some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay. Put to bed with a spade in the usual way [F&H]. | ||
Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: When he is buried he is [...] ‘put to bed with a shovel’. | ||
‘Lela’ in Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 31 Mar. 2: The arch gonnoff is dusty, you’d better wish. If he rats you are a prate roost, you’ll get put to bed with a shovel. | ||
Oakleigh Leader (Nth Brighton, Vic.) 3 Sept. 45/5: The last event which happens to all alike [...] is described as ‘wearing a wooden ovecoat’ and being ‘put to bed with a shovel’. | ||
Aus. Sl. Dict. 62: Put to Bed with a Spade or Shovel, buried. | ||
Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I met an old flame [...] that I thought was put to bed with a spade and shovel stretches ago. | ||
Confessions of a Detective 30: Your one chance to put them away, so they’ll stay, is to put them to bed with a shovel. | ||
Topeka State Jrnl 13 Sept. 9/4: The old bug was gone — had been taken to the hillside and ‘put to bed with a spade’. | ||
Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 13 Sept. 18/1: The bully they take to the dump on the hill, and put him to bed with a spade. | ||
AS XI:3 198: Put to bed with a shovel. | ‘Amer. Euphemisms for Dying’ in||
(con. 1940–60s) Straight from the Fridge Dad. |